Pragmatic Techniques

In one hand, the majority of current IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) for visual languages come with an elegant graphic User Interface Designer which let the process of designing interfaces to be a piece of cake.

In the other hand the creation of prototypes is a commonly used requirement-fetching technique that let the developers to test if the interface and functionality they are designing meets the users expectations.

In some cases, a piece of paper with some lines representing the user interface will be enough prototype for our project, but in the cases it is not enough, you will need a prototyping tool to draw interface images and simulate the flow between system screens with fake data shown on them.

I have seen some teams to use PowerPoint, Visio or Omnigraffle as a prototyping tool, and they generate amazing prototypes really close to the final interface, other teams use dedicated prototyping tools, but.. what if you use your cool IDE’s User Interface Designer to do the same?

You can create the screens and write the minimal methods to navigate between screens or initialize some fake data to show in the prototype. You will obtain the same with some advantages:

1. Your prototype is just identical to your final user interface, without surprises for the users or bad interpretations.
2. You can reuse your prototype as final interface without modifications to start developing your wonderful application.
3. You can’t create prototypes that show amazing functionality your final interface can’t do, and your prototypes can do whatever your final interface needs to do.
4. You haven’t to do the work twice, as in the moment you finish your prototype you finish your user interface.
5. You can create your prototypes as fast as with any other prototyping tool, with just drag and drop.

Think about that and start saving some time to make your boss happier than ever.

These are some links with information about some IDEs or User Interface Designers available for commonly used languages and platforms:

• Netbeans IDE: AWT and Swing user interfaces for Java SE
• Eclipse IDE: SWT for Java (Don’t forget to install SWT plugin)
• Qt Designer: Design Qt interfaces for your Java or C++ applications.
• Xcode and Interface Builder: Design your Cocoa or Carbon application interfaces for Mac OS X or iPhone.
• Visual Studio: You can do the trick even in Windows for .NET or C++ languages, but.. under your responsability.
• Glade: Design your GTK+ interfaces for C Gnome programs

If you know other good interface designers I’ll be glad to add them in this list, just tell me about it